Comments on: A Railroad Rarity: Train Arrives Five Days Earlyhttp://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/25/a-railroad-rarety-train-arrives-five-days-early/
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By: serrendipityhttp://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/25/a-railroad-rarety-train-arrives-five-days-early/comment-page-1/#comment-117965
Thu, 16 Oct 2008 00:28:21 +0000http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/25/a-railroad-rarety-train-arrives-five-days-early/#comment-117965Train travel in Europe even into Asian wide gauge fmr USSR/Russia (with Trans-Siberian) has always been much more efficient and comfortable than people in US could ever imagine. Problems might be of different nature.
The 21st century TGVs in France, ICE in Germany, similar SUPERtrains in Japan, Spain, Italy, etc., even the panEuro extensive InterCity express train network, put our mediocre Amtrak belated attempts (incl.Acela) to shame. Euro trains are cheaper as well.

Some years ago I did travel by train from London, via Hoek van Holland (train rolled onto train ferry to cross the Chanel La Manche), Holland, then two Germanys, to Warsaw, Poland – I had my own compartment filled with trunks and luggage (I was moving with books,etc., that didn’t get to go by sea). To my total dismay the sleeping car I transferred into in Hoek van Holland, and its staff, were RUSSIAN/Soviet – I am multilingual, incl. Russian, but was petrified, especially when the Soviet conductors confiscated my passport, “to ease the border crossings” during the night. After I got off in Warsaw, the train was continuing into (then) Soviet Union, connecting in Moscow with Trans-Siberian to Vladivostok on the Pacific.

The plus was that all through the night Russians were serving fantastic Russian ‘chay” (tea) freshly brewed in original SAMOVARs, very, very cheap as long as one was paying in Western currencies they were in dire need of. The tea was served in Russian silver ‘stakanchiki’- special holders with handles and removable glass inserts (thin clear lass,little shorter than our highballs), which preserve the real tea-taste even better than porcelain/bone china. The dining car was opening for breakfast early in the morning.

The trip was very good as such, but destroyed by the Staasi/East German border controls, FOUR TIMES, upon entering and leaving Eastern Germany, and the Soviet sector of Berlin, also one of the train stops. While one was not much aware of border crossing between the UK and Holland, and Holland and Federal/Western Germany, the German commies were providing quite a traumatic experience. In the middle of the night, they would abruptly open the locked compartment doors from outside without any warning, with a MASTER KEY, and without turning the lights on, would shine a very strong (police interrogation type..) light into sleeping/waking traveler’s face and eyes. Passengers were in beds, disrobed, shocked – after all our passports were confiscated NOT to wake us up ! Very, very SCARY and disorienting, since one was barely awake, and could not see the faces of the East German SOLDIERS shouting idiotic questions in German as in a bad Nazi movie. The explanation was that they needed to see if the passport holder photo was resembling the passenger.
After that drama, the daytime Polish(then also communist) border control was friendly and quick, just pro-forma. During all the trip (~24-30 hrs from London to Warsaw) one could walk about, eat in the dining car, or order the ‘room service’, which delivered cooked meals at reasonable prices in a shaking and moving train. The shared showers were a few, one might had to wait. I did not see my passport again until shortly before Warsaw – supposedly an ‘insurance policy’ against/ if anybody got the idea to disembark in Holland or Federal Germany. According to these Russian imposed rules, the passenger was only as free as the ticket spelled out. Amazingly, this was all legal/ official, as all these countries were “code-sharing’ as airlines got to do so commonly in later years.

While in Poland, I got to travel further East, also by train, to Kiyev and Moscow to take Trans-Siberian train into Asia from there. Daytime Polish/Soviet border crossing was almost as dramatic as through Soviet sector of communist Germany. Like in the Bond movies, Soviet soldiers with loaded guns were running in heavy/noisy boots along the corridors of ‘pullman cars’ (with passengers locked in the compartments for the border crossing duration), and also on the car ROOFS, and snaking UNDER the train car carriages (to check if anybody tried to get into Soviet Union w/out documents !!! as if anybody would be that crazy..), as the cars were LIFTED by crane systems from the Polish/Euro gauge under-carriages onto parallel parked wider Soviet gauge ones, and locked into position. NOBODY was allowed to get off/out, and toilets were also locked, not available for use until the train would roll again after several hours, on the Soviet side. Once the Poles quickly/politely just walked through, saluted, etc, the Soviets were entering all the compartments, with (Russian-only speaking)Soviet soldiers shouting, opening all the beds folded for the day, rummagimg thru the bedding, checking the luggage, all kinds of intimidation. Our passports were confiscated in Warsaw, returned just before Kiyev, or Moscow.

However, most of the passengers (a lot of Polish students with great sense of humor) were quite amused, joked, were very ironic with Soviets while trying to “help” them (ala Saturday Night Live, but for real..). People pulled out some food/drinks for an impromptu pot-luck party under lockdown, which got into full swing once the train was rolling again on the Soviet side, and most compartments did the same, with all socializing all over. The Soviet conductors seemed to be relieved as well, put on their formidable SAMOVARS with fresh “chay”/tea(two samovars per car, one at each end), and with some wine/chilled vodka flowing in and out of the dining cars along the food, it was one big party on wheels, while watching the landscapes changing outside the windows. The Soviet folding sleeping beds were surprisingly comfortable, in every category I tried (incl. “couchettes”).

Although ALL and ANY private business activity was strictly forbidden in the USSR, at every bigger station, the vendors would be waiting on the platform with their food carts/baskets, with “home-cooked” ethnic food ready to eat: pelmeni, piroshki, blinis, vegetables and fruits – these mostly from vendors who travelled themselves with produce from warm climate Crimea or Caucasus (southern Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia). They would roll the cart along the train, with food/money exchanged through the open windows.

My favorite: very good MOROZHENOYE (ice cream), the best ones called “KASHTANY” (chestnuts), as in Kiyev – maybe for vanilla or latte interior, with solid chocolate layers on the top (years later Hagen Dazs created similar in the US, on the ‘stick’). During my childhood my grandmother used to tell us (kids) stories of her many travels, also of Russian train travels as a very young girl from StPetersburg across the Urals, just BEFORE the Soviet revolution of 1917. She said the Russian imperial rail trains were on time (unlike the Soviet ones), and she had fond memories of rail station food vendors, selling the same foods (warm even in the middle of severe Russian winter!) I had seen so many years later, and, her favorite: MOROZHENOYE (ice cream). In fact, all the kids in the family knew that in order to get some ice-cream fast and ready, anytime, we had to ask grandma, with the Russian name:MOROZHENOYE! Our ice cream was served generously, no questions asked, as long as we said ‘thank you’ in any of 5 languages the family used.

Trans-Siberian might be too much esp. nowadays, but might be tried on a shorter piece. I took it also years ago from Moscow to Irkutsk/Lake Baikal, and even with breaks for all “-stans” (as Uzbekistan)I was happy when it was over.

How ironic that this train brings just more of the Chinese junk into Euro zone – many Germans love tchotchkies as bad as our own US WalMart devotees.

Some of the proposed names above are really great. Unfortunately, the name for this train will not get to be “The Death of Western Civilization As We Know It Express”, nor the “Mongol Invasion II”.

I would think “Eurasian Switcher”, “Cherman Express”, or “GENGHIS BAHN” (kids learn at school about Genghis-khan exploits after all) should be quite acceptable. How could they be submitted to appropriate powers-to-be ?

It is not clear from the photo how big are these particular containers. Even if ONE per rail-car-carriage, transfer from one gauge to the other will never be instant: the containers have to be unlocked-transferred-locked onto ‘new’ rail carriage.
Automatic operation would probably require so much maintenance/money, that manual lock/eyeball checks along the train will be still the most reliable – before the train rolls off on the ‘other’ gauge tracks. Thus takes time.

With same gauge all over US it is a SHAME we have not much left of rail transport. What do we have left, anyway ? Bailout debris??!

Peking/ Pekin is widely used ALL AROUND THE WORLD – I never understood WHY was is changed into Beijing in the US. Maybe due to difficulty in pronouncing the “P-” for Americans ?

]]>By: David Pearsonhttp://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/25/a-railroad-rarety-train-arrives-five-days-early/comment-page-1/#comment-117963
Fri, 30 May 2008 10:01:26 +0000http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/25/a-railroad-rarety-train-arrives-five-days-early/#comment-117963Does anyone know the best route from Europe through Russia and China down to Singapore by rail?
]]>By: Ben Calvinhttp://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/25/a-railroad-rarety-train-arrives-five-days-early/comment-page-1/#comment-117959
Tue, 18 Mar 2008 18:10:15 +0000http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/25/a-railroad-rarety-train-arrives-five-days-early/#comment-117959George W. Whistler, the father of the artist James McNeil Whistler is credited with selecting the 5 foot guage fo rthe Moscow to St Petersburg Railway which was the firts to be constructed in Russia. At the time there was a prolieration of guages. The 5 foot guage was popular in the US South as well as the Erie railroad in the North. As far as this being a bar to invasion, it is a very simple task to narrow the gauge from 5 foot to the 4 8 1/2 guage selected by George Stephenson in the U>K. Moving the rails out to 5 foot is not easy. Bridges tunnels stations, rights of way generally are too narrow!
]]>By: Frankhttp://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/25/a-railroad-rarety-train-arrives-five-days-early/comment-page-1/#comment-117961
Mon, 10 Mar 2008 07:07:14 +0000http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/25/a-railroad-rarety-train-arrives-five-days-early/#comment-117961Interesting conversations – though I am wondering when does this become live commercially?

Also is there any information on the current project status? where is this at??

]]>By: Ick of the Easthttp://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/25/a-railroad-rarety-train-arrives-five-days-early/comment-page-1/#comment-117927
Wed, 30 Jan 2008 10:11:58 +0000http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/25/a-railroad-rarety-train-arrives-five-days-early/#comment-117927Peking (or Pa-King) is how the Cantonese pronounce it. So no big deal.

The name of the train? The East Meets West Express.
Say that three times real fast.

]]>By: karlhttp://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/25/a-railroad-rarety-train-arrives-five-days-early/comment-page-1/#comment-117877
Tue, 29 Jan 2008 02:54:44 +0000http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/25/a-railroad-rarety-train-arrives-five-days-early/#comment-117877The Euro-Yuan-er
]]>By: karlhttp://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/25/a-railroad-rarety-train-arrives-five-days-early/comment-page-1/#comment-117875
Tue, 29 Jan 2008 02:53:16 +0000http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/25/a-railroad-rarety-train-arrives-five-days-early/#comment-117875Autos East, Cheap Consumables West.
]]>By: Fortitudinehttp://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/25/a-railroad-rarety-train-arrives-five-days-early/comment-page-1/#comment-117873
Sun, 27 Jan 2008 04:50:46 +0000http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/25/a-railroad-rarety-train-arrives-five-days-early/#comment-117873#5 above has it nearly right… How about “LOR Express” (“Landfill-On-Rails Express”)… an homage to the the famous anti-WalMart tag, “Landfill-On-Shelves”.
]]>By: Bobhttp://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/25/a-railroad-rarety-train-arrives-five-days-early/comment-page-1/#comment-117871
Sat, 26 Jan 2008 17:06:04 +0000http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/25/a-railroad-rarety-train-arrives-five-days-early/#comment-117871Name it, “Lead Paint Express”
]]>By: Roger Hhttp://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/25/a-railroad-rarety-train-arrives-five-days-early/comment-page-1/#comment-117957
Sat, 26 Jan 2008 04:14:29 +0000http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/25/a-railroad-rarety-train-arrives-five-days-early/#comment-117957The lines in Europe are electrified because of a commitment by their government to rail infrastructure. The payback on the initial outlay for electrification in the US will take too long for private investment to consider it. Stockholders are hardly satisfied now when railroads are making money. It is most practical in high density corridors.

If it is any consolation, The diesel locomotives that China buys for their railroads are from the world’s two largest builders…GE and Electro-Motive Diesel (former subsidiary of GM).

]]>By: Gisellehttp://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/25/a-railroad-rarety-train-arrives-five-days-early/comment-page-1/#comment-117955
Fri, 25 Jan 2008 23:58:23 +0000http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/25/a-railroad-rarety-train-arrives-five-days-early/#comment-117955Well, since it carries goods from the East to the West, why not the “Occident Express”?

Nah, too unwieldy.

]]>By: Joe Russohttp://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/25/a-railroad-rarety-train-arrives-five-days-early/comment-page-1/#comment-117953
Fri, 25 Jan 2008 23:17:25 +0000http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/25/a-railroad-rarety-train-arrives-five-days-early/#comment-117953I am struck by the cleanliness and clean lines of the German locomotive…note also it is electrified, as are most main lines in Europe…no diesel fumes belching from idling engines there. Compare this single piece of equipment with what you typically see here in the US…and this is a freight locomotive!
If there would be a land connection from the US to China, the goods flow would be all one way: their finished products coming here and our agricultural products going there just as it is now via ship. But since this is Europe expect a steady flow of German cars, Italian hand-made cars and other high quality products on the trains going back to China for all those newly minted millionaires who won’t settle for the “Made in China” label!
]]>By: Russell from Atlantahttp://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/25/a-railroad-rarety-train-arrives-five-days-early/comment-page-1/#comment-117951
Fri, 25 Jan 2008 23:12:15 +0000http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/25/a-railroad-rarety-train-arrives-five-days-early/#comment-117951The Sino-Heino Express (referring to the popular German singer Heino). Or maybe The Ridiculous-Sublime Express (referring to the disparity in the quality of the two countries’ products). Or maybe The Super Cheap (an homage to the old Super Chief that ran the width of our continent).
]]>By: Jim Johnsonhttp://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/25/a-railroad-rarety-train-arrives-five-days-early/comment-page-1/#comment-117949
Fri, 25 Jan 2008 22:56:16 +0000http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/25/a-railroad-rarety-train-arrives-five-days-early/#comment-1179491) re: Peking/Beijing. The current internationally-recognized standard three-letter acronym for Beijing Capital International Airport is PEK.
2) At the Mongolia-China border today (my experience is 2004), the train goes to a shed wherein the coaches are jacked up, and replacement bogies of the new gauge are run under the coaches, which are then lowered onto the new wheel sets. Neat: no bolts or screws, the coaches are just slid down onto a single thick spike rising from the wheel bogie! Takes several hours; you, the passenger, can choose to stay in your coach and spectate from the window (you are stuck in the coach throughout the process if you make this choice), or you can get off at the station and wait for the re-wheeled train to reappear.
]]>By: Now back to my Oriental food.http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/25/a-railroad-rarety-train-arrives-five-days-early/comment-page-1/#comment-117939
Fri, 25 Jan 2008 22:54:33 +0000http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/25/a-railroad-rarety-train-arrives-five-days-early/#comment-117939Good game.